Volunteer at Capitol was on GOP payroll (Kentucky, Gov. Fletcher)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Sep. 18, 2005

Volunteer at Capitol was on GOP payroll

PARTY TREASURER GOT OFFICE AND SECRETARY, INFLUENCED HIRING
By Bill Bartleman

THE PADUCAH SUN

While Dave Disponett was working in the governor's office as a volunteer and influencing state hiring decisions, he was being paid $4,000 a month by the Republican Party of Kentucky, the party confirmed Friday.
Disponett is a confidant of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and served as co-finance chairman of his 2003 campaign for governor. After the election, Disponett was appointed treasurer of the Republican Party and worked for Fletcher as a volunteer.

Although Disponett had no state title, salary or job description, Fletcher gave him an office in the Capitol and assigned him a secretary who was a state employee. He has been mentioned frequently in Attorney General Greg Stumbo's investigation into whether the Fletcher administration hired rank-and-file employees on the basis of politics instead of merit.

E-mail messages and court documents indicate Disponett was involved in hiring decisions and in some cases interviewed candidates for rank-and-file jobs. As a volunteer, he wasn't subject to state ethics rules or laws that other state employees must follow.

"It is wrong for any officer of any political party to have an office in the governor's complex in the Capitol and to be making hiring decisions," said Jerry Lundergan, chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party. "It makes it even more questionable when he was being paid a salary by the party. His office should have been at the Republican headquarters, not the Capitol."
(snip/...)

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/politics/12676292.htm

[zbdent]

1. And we're ripped for "paying volunteers"?

:crazy: